Tesco Halts Christmas Cards From China After ‘Slave’ Laborer In Prison Factory Begs For Help 

Ahead of the holidays, a young girl in London opened a Tesco supermarket Christmas card last week, was shocked to find a depressing note from a Chinese gulag, reported Sky News.

“We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China,” the note read. “Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify the human rights organization.” The girl had accidentally uncovered the chilling connection between British Christmas festivities and how Chinese prisoners are working in factories to supply Western countries with holiday goods. 

Tesco said it was absolutely appalled on the reports of the Christmas card: “We abhor the use of prison labor and would never allow it in our supply chain,” a Tesco spokesman said on Sunday.

“We were shocked by these allegations and immediately suspended the factory where these cards are produced and launched an investigation,” the spokesman said.

The note also said: “Use the link to contact Mr. Peter Humphrey.” 

Peter Humphrey is a former investigative journalist that spent several years in a Chinese prison that forced prisoners to work 15-hour days manufacturing clothing. 

Humphrey said his wife Yu Yingzen and him were both sentenced to the Chinese jail in 2014 for obtaining illegal records on Chinese citizens. The couple spent about a year in jail and were eventually deported in 2015. 

Humphrey told Sky News that he believes the card came from the Zheijiang Yunguang Printing factory, where prisoners were used in the production line as slave laborers.  

He said foreign inmates were typically “forced into mundane manual assembly or packaging tasks,” including making Christmas products for Western countries. 

As for the authenticity of the letter inside the card, well, that hasn’t been confirmed yet, and it comes at a time when Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure from the Trump administration to abandon the Huawei 5G rollout across the country. 

The Christmas card has certainly generated Sinophobia in London and could help sway the popular opinion on how the public perceives Chinese companies – such as Huawei.